California Latinos celebrate the 3election results at a Nov. 7 rally in downtown Los Angeles. (Photo: Matt Gush)OPINION: The election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has left Harris’ Senate seat open. In appointing someone to fill this seat, Governor Newsom has the opportunity to secure another historic first by selecting our state’s first Latino or Latina U.S. Senator.
An aerial view of a neighborhood in Fremont, California. (Photo: Sundry Photography, via Shutterstock)Once again, Californians are being asked to decide on the merits of a ballot measure that roiled the political scene when many of them were in grammar school — or not even born yet. The ballot measure under challenge is Proposition 13, a constitutional amendment written by anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis and approved nearly 2-to-1 by voters in 1978.
An assortment of soft-drink brands at a Cypress, Calif., market. (Photo: David Tonelson, via Shutterstock)OPINION: While health and wellness must be a top priority for communities across the US, taxing the poor is not the way to do it. Taxes such as these place a considerably larger share of the economic burden on working families, poor communities and small business owners.
Gov, Jerry Brown, left, and Howard Jarvis, the architect of Proposition 13, at their first joint news conference in July 1978. Voters approved the initiative the month before. (Photo: Associated Press)Once thought of as a sacred cow, Proposition 13, the tax revolt measure passed in 1978, is now under attack. Schools and Communities First, a coalition of nearly 300 groups and leaders, has qualified to put an initiative on the Nov. 2020 ballot that would lift caps on property taxes for commercial and industrial properties.
Pat Nolan addresses a 2014 meeting of CPAC <(Photo: Gage Skidmore)Pat Nolan has Southern California credentials that are about as solid as they come. The future Assembly Republican leader was born into a family that had been in the area for generations. One of his great-grandfathers had been an early settler of the area for whom two cities (Agoura and Agoura Hills) are named. Nolan also played a role in one of the Capitol’s darkest episodes – the FBI’s investigation of Capitol corruption, which included a dramatic nighttime raid on the building in the summer of 1988.
Assembly GOP Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, during an August 2016 floor session. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli) Chad Mayes, the affable leader of Assembly Republicans, says he wakes up every morning thinking about the low state of his party in California. Mayes has plenty to ponder. Republicans have no statewide officeholders, a paltry 26 percent of registered voters (just a bit higher than the 24 percent who decline to state a party affiliation) and Mayes himself has to deal with a 25-55 Democratic supermajority in his Assembly.
Tax form image via California HealthlineK.A. Curtis gave up her career in the nonprofit world in 2008 to care for her ailing parents in Fresno, which also meant giving up her income. She wasn’t able to afford health insurance as a result, and for each tax year since 2014, Curtis has applied for – and received – an exemption from Obamacare’s coverage requirement and the related tax penalty, she says
The Tower Bridge in Sacramanto west of the state Capitol. (Photo: Tupungato, via Shutterstock)OPINION: “Amen to that, brother,” Governor Jerry Brown exhorted in his state of the state speech in support of President Donald Trump’s call for spending $1 trillion on infrastructure improvements. It was the only sense of cooperation the governor offered to the new president and some of his expected policies.
Hunger marchers descend on Washington, D.C., January 1931. (Photo: Everett Historical, via Shutterstock)OPINION: For those who think the issues at hand are unique to the current domestic dis-tranquility or represent new challenges for inmates of the governing class, gander this: “This is becoming the richest and the poorest country in the world.”
A cigarette smoker enjoying his habit. (Photo: Pe3k, via Shutterstock)An initiative aimed at next year’s ballot to more than triple the tax on California cigarettes would raise at least $1.3 billion annually, with the money going to an array of health and other programs, according to the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal adviser. The Legislative Analyst’s Office reported Monday that the proposal to add $2 in taxes to a pack of cigarettes would increase the per-pack taxes to $2.87.